A Matter of Lily and James
by arcticharl
Summary: James - the witty, clever, loyal one. Lily - the smart, sweet and compassionate one. But together, so much more. This story begins as they enter their sixth year at Hogwarts, and follows their journey from then on.


**Disclaimer: ** Please note, I do not own any of this. I'm making up the storyline, but Harry Potter and everything in the wizarding world belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling. I hope you enjoy. Reviews will make me happy; I'm new at this!

James Potter was charming. Some may say cocky, yes, but nevertheless, he was charming. Some may say "too big for his boots", but that would never cancel out the fact that he was charming. To Lily Evans, however, this was not the case. To Lily, James was simply an arrogant, bullying toerag. She'd told him as much last year. He thought he was God's gift to mankind, and he _wasn't_ charming.

She was mulling over this thought as she sat in the Gryffindor common room in a rather worn leather armchair. She was sitting at an awkward angle, with her legs flopped over one arm and a book nestled between her side and the back of the chair. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were playing a rather noisy game of Exploding Snap by the fireplace, and there were various other people mulling about, including a pair of seventh years, Alice Fortescue and Frank Longbottom. Lily grinned briefly at the sight of them, only to be distracted once more by the Marauders and their antics, leaving her annoyed beyond belief again. It was the second day back at Hogwarts for their sixth year and James Potter was already irritating the hell out of her. He shot her a look and winked at her, grinning, to which she huffed a frustrated sigh, resulting in her hair blowing up out of her face in mild irritation.

She reached for her book, some trashy romance novel she'd found in Petunia's room and hastily grabbed before leaving home, as a last resort for some light reading on the Hogwarts Express journey, in the hope that it would distract her and kill some time before Marlene, Mary and Emmeline were due back from… well, wherever it was they were. She didn't particularly like spending time on her own, but it was only the second day back, after all, and she had plenty of unpacking and preparing for the school year to be getting on with. She opened the very battered, dog-eared book (she hadn't had a chance to start it on the Hogwarts Express, due to hours of much-needed gossip and catching up on what was going in the wizarding world, all thanks to Marlene, Emmeline and Dorcas) and prepared herself for what was likely to be some appalling reading.

Just as she began to read the first sentence, she was interrupted by an incredibly loud bang from by the fireplace, making her jump out of her skin. "This is the last straw," she told herself, angrily lifting herself out of the armchair and striding towards the Marauders, all of whom were laughing together. Reaching them, she looked up at James (who was at least a head taller than her), who laughed down at her, saying "Alright, Evans?", grinning. This further aggravated her, for some unknown reason, so she simply looked down at her right hand, in which the book she had _attempted_ to read was still placed. She lifted said hand and book and whacked James with it, who flinched slightly but other than that just glanced down at her bemusedly. Sirius could be seen howling with laughter behind him, with Peter giggling behind his own hand. Remus smiled quietly to himself. Lily, annoyed that James hadn't reacted more profusely, glared daggers at James, pursing her lips and clenching her fists, her right one around the aforementioned "weapon" of her choice.

"If you wanted to attack him, you should have used your wand. You are a witch, after all," Sirius called out from behind James, smirking. James looked over his shoulder at Sirius, grinning. "Yeah.," he agreed, turning back to Lily and ruffling his hair. "You should have. I can't say this did me much damage…" he said, refraining from laughing. Remus chuckled to himself quietly, turning back to their game of Exploding Snap, so as not to be too nosey – something he hated. "Well… why can't you lot just shut up for once and let the rest of us get things done without being disturbed by your… your… your annoying noise!" she ended up finishing, agitatedly waving her book around, frustrated with the fact that she couldn't accurately depict her annoyance through words… for whatever reason.

"Get things done?" James smirked to himself, reaching for Lily's book and grabbing it. "You call this…" he glanced at the cover, raising his eyebrows, and leafed through the pages, "…stuff?" he smirked cockily, closing it and waving it in the air, deliberately out of her reach. Lily gave him a fierce look of anger. "Give," she reached, "that," she jumped, in an attempt to reach the book, which James steadily raised higher so as to make certain that she wouldn't get it back, "BACK!" she shouted, giving up and putting her hands on her hips, narrowing her almond-shaped green eyes at James, giving him the dirtiest look she could muster. By now, many other people in the Gryffindor common room were looking at both James and Lily, as they had caused quite a scene.

"Hey, Prongs…" Sirius grinned, "What is that Lily wants so much, exactly?" In response, James threw the book at Sirius, who caught it easily, leaning back in the chair he was casually sitting in, and opened the book. Peter joined him at his side, desperate, as always, to be a part of whatever was going on. Lily, having noticed that they were acquiring quite a lot of attention from everyone in the common room, took a deep breath - ignoring James' smirks - and walked slowly and as calmly as she could towards Sirius. "If you don't give that back right now," she whispered coolly, as she reached him, "I'm telling Marlene not to set another eye on you.", she hissed, making sure he was the only one to hear her, holding her hand out slightly nervously, though not showing it, not knowing how Sirius would take what she had just said. "And why would I care about that?" Sirius replied. "This looks like a load of crap, I'd have thought better of you, Evans.", he said, smirking, handing the book over, clearly having taken what Lily had said seriously, but putting on a façade for the rest of the common room. "Thanks." Lily muttered, brushing her hand through her hair and stepping away from him, walking away and completely avoiding James' outburst of "Calm down, Evans!"

She rushed through the crowd of people who had apparently begun to lost interest, and made her way up to the sixth year girls' dormitories. Once she had reached her bed, she threw the book into her open trunk, hoping she could forget about that encounter. "Way to start the year, Lily," she sighed to herself, perching on the end of her bed, ruffling through her trunk in search of the sole chocolate frog she had brought with her. Her fingertips found it, and she gripped it firmly, struggling to pull it out of her trunk, messily filled with clothes, books and odds and ends. Sighing in relief, she collapsed onto her bed and closed her eyes, hoping Marlene, Mary and Emmeline wouldn't return just yet. She needed some time to replenish her energy with this chocolate, and they sure as hell weren't getting any. She smiled to herself.


End file.
